


Responsibility

by Shiori_Makiba



Series: Problem Child [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Gen, Ichigo Is A Puzzle, Rukia Is Annoyed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 08:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16322312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiori_Makiba/pseuds/Shiori_Makiba
Summary: Rukia was not taking responsibility for this mess. She refused.





	Responsibility

Kuchiki Rukia would like to state, for the record, that none of this was her fault. No way. No how. She was taking no responsibility for this whatsoever. She **refused.** She was just a lowly unseated officer who had been minding her own business, doing her duty, when she was shanghaied into this mess by people far powerful than her.

That was her story and she was sticking it. If the brief smirk she had seen flash across Urahara-san's face was any indication, it might even have the benefit of being the truth.

There had to be something more to this whole mess. 

To start off with there was the human boy, Ichigo. He had more reiatsu than she had ever sensed from a human. She had been told that some of the living were clear sighted, some were even strong enough to see Shinigami. They were rare but they existed. So the fact that the boy could see her was surprising but not shocking once she had time to sit down and think about it. But Ichigo was more than just clear sighted with a bit more reiatsu than normal for a human. He radiated the same level of energy that once had Kaien-dono **strongly** recommending to a confused soul in the Rukongai to get their behinds enrolled in the Academy. Before they killed someone with their uncontrolled power.

And boy did Ichigo have no control over his power. She was amazed he had managed to avoid being eaten for this long considering he was all but ringing a dinner bell to every passing Hollow in the area. The only thing saving him now was the fact that he could fight them and that some of the smarter Hollows could tell the difference between human with high reiatsu and Shinigami, and stayed far away from the later. 

Unless said Shinigami was injured. Then they came running. And, more often than she liked to think about, the Shinigami died and their soul was eaten. Not always in that order. Ichigo protected her from that fate. If his out of control reiatsu was useful for anything, it was that it easily hide her damaged, tattered aura from the senses of the ever hungry Hollows.

His unusual strength wasn't the only odd thing about Ichigo. He adjusted to being a Shinigami faster and better than she would have thought a human would have. His soul accepted her powers with an ease, an eagerness, that she didn't understand. There was something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something that said there was something very natural about Ichigo being a Shinigami.

Which made no sense. Ichigo was a living human. A human soul gaining enough power to become a Shinigami after its mortal death was one thing. That happened all the time. She was a case in point. But a living human?

There was also his strong resemblance to Kaien. Dye his hair black, make him grow it out a little, change his eyes to sea blue, and she would be hard pressed to tell them apart. The resemblance hadn't been so strong when she first laid eyes on him. Oh it was there but that grumpy scowl . . . it was only when he smiled at her, tired but triumphant that it had hit her right between the eyes like a hammer.

If Kaien had been a human soul from the Rukongai, she would have assumed that Ichigo was some, probably distant, mortal relative. But Kaien was a Shiba. Shinketsu. As far she knew, the true-born souls didn't have mortal relatives like that. Mortals might carry the soul of a dead noble but they didn't look like them.

She thought she sensed something . . . odd . . . about the auras of the whole family. Even the spirit blind father. But she wasn't sure if she was actually sensing something weird. Her spiritual senses had been . . . unstable . . . since her injury. She could still see spirits. The rest had been fuzzy. Fuzzy in ways that she couldn't entirely blame on Ichigo's aura drowning other things out.

It was puzzle. One of the many. Ichigo and his family were one big puzzle and she already getting tired of discovering she had been missing another piece every time she thought she had solved it.

At the moment, her desire to solve the mysteries surrounding Kurosaki Ichigo was warring with her desire to strangle him. And currently that later desire was winning.

Because somehow, and she wasn't exactly sure **how** , they had gone from discussing Hell Butterflies and what they are used for, to Ichigo attempting to summon one. And succeeding. He also succeeded, somehow, in opening a door to . . . . somewhere . . . and dumping them through it.

_That's it! We are the gods only knew where and just as soon as I can get my limbs free, I'm going to kill him! ___

__“Kuchiki-san?”_ _

__The soft voiced inquiry made her freeze. Because she knew that voice. Maybe she imagined it? Slowly, she raised her head and looked. No such luck. She had not imagined it. Standing a foot away, with a look of puzzled concern on his face, was her captain. Where had he – her eyes did a quick flicker around the room – oh, this was his office. Of all the places in the universe for Ichigo to dump them into . . ._ _

__“Ah Ukitake-taicho . . . . I can explain?”_ _


End file.
